


Human Behavior

by lillianmmalter



Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Disabled Character, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Jack Thompson Needs a Hug, M/M, Multi, Oral Sex, Polyamory Negotiations, Smut, Threesome - F/M/M, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-05-08 20:45:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14701950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lillianmmalter/pseuds/lillianmmalter
Summary: Jack always figured his part in this strange relationship he had with Peggy and Daniel would end sooner or later, but now that they’ve reached the logical point to let him go, they don’t seem to want to. And he doesn’t want to let them go either.





	Human Behavior

**Author's Note:**

  * For [truth_renowned](https://archiveofourown.org/users/truth_renowned/gifts).



> So, I missed a lot of the things you prompted, but I hope you like this anyway. Thanks for giving me the excuse to write it!

_“Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.”_

 

Jack sauntered up to the hotel room door with all the careless ease he possessed. Anyone watching him would think he paid for the key in his pocket, for the luxury suite at the end of the hall, though he decided to knock on the door anyway, just in case. It was a small concession to make to his sweaty palms and the nervous clench in his stomach. The look on Daniel’s face when he opened the door told Jack that knocking was the right decision. He’d never have gotten to see Daniel’s baffled joy if he’d just walked right in. Instead, he’d probably have been greeted with a gun in his face.

“Jack. How did you– What are you doing here?”

“What? You get married and suddenly I’m chopped liver?”

Daniel gripped him by his tie and pulled him into the room, slamming him against the closed door before attacking him with the harshest, hottest kiss he’d ever been on the receiving end of. It knocked the hat right off his head.

The tension drained from Jack’s shoulders as he melted into it.

“I missed you,” Daniel breathed against him, barely pulling away far enough to speak. “It’s the craziest thing. Here I am on my honeymoon with the woman of my dreams and all I can think about is how you’re missing from my bed.”

“That’s all you can think about, huh?” Jack said, his hands skating across the bare skin of Daniel’s waist under his open shirt. “Peggy must be falling down on the job.”

Daniel pinched him in the side and gave him one last smacking kiss before he stepped away, moving further into the suite. Jack followed as if pulled by a string.

“All right, maybe not all I can think about. You haven’t seen the bedroom part of her trousseau.”

“That good?”

Daniel’s eyes unfocused and his mouth curled up in one corner in a way Jack had never seen it do before. “You have no idea.”

“Darling, who was at the door?” Peggy wandered out of the bedroom in a sheer slip of nothing that instantly had Jack’s mouth watering and his hands itching to rip it off her.

“Heya, Marge,” he managed, his voice coming out only slightly strangled. Peggy beamed.

“Jack! You got the key without any issues, then?”

“Key?” Daniel asked.

“You were pining, Darling. And I knew if you didn’t then I would, so I made some arrangements before we left.”

Peggy walked up beside Daniel as she spoke and slid her hand over his shoulder. Jack thanked his lucky stars it was her right hand instead of her left. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about seeing Daniel’s ring on her finger even after all the months of their engagement. Or her ring on his finger, now that it was there. The two of them looked too damn good standing there half-dressed for Jack to be jealous right now. Or whatever that feeling was that kept creeping up on him when he saw them together recently.

He knew what the three of them had together was ending soon, he wasn’t an idiot. It wasn’t like Jack had what it’d take to be Peggy’s husband. He and Daniel could never be a couple by themselves. It had to be this way. Peggy and Daniel together, a pair, and Jack privileged to be with them for a while.

“You are a marvel,” Daniel said, kissing her lightly before they both turned their full attention on Jack.

“Are you just going to stand over there all night?” Peggy asked, her lips quirked in a teasing smirk.

Jack chuckled. Well, if this honeymoon was going to be a last hurrah between the three of them before Peggy and Daniel went off together for their happily ever after, who was he to say no? Jack walked over to them, allowing a little extra swing to move his hips. He cupped Peggy’s jaw in his hand and tilted her face up toward his before he slid his lips over hers, greedy for whatever she’d give him. Peggy moaned. She leaned into him, her free hand coming up to clutch at his hair, her breasts pressing flat against his chest. Or at least as flat as Peggy’s breasts could ever be.

He felt Daniel move behind him, Daniel’s hands unclasping his belt to slide broad fingers beneath the waistband of his trousers. Jack slid a hand underneath the gauzy thing Peggy was wearing to grope her ass, tilting her hips up to meet his and trapping Daniel’s hand in between them. Daniel nipped the back of Jack’s neck in response.

Jack groaned, kissing Peggy harder, unsure whether to push his hips forward to rub up against Peggy, or move his ass back to take advantage of Daniel’s already obvious growing erection. Fuck, he loved being between them like this. There was nowhere in the world he’d rather be.

“Bed,” Peggy panted, breaking away. “Both of you, on the bed, now.”

Jack felt Daniel shudder behind him.

“Yes, Ma’am,” they chorused.

Jack turned to grin at Daniel. He loved the look on Daniel’s face when Peggy got authoritative like that. He nipped a kiss against Daniel’s lips and stole his crutch, throwing it to the side only to place his hands low on Daniel’s hips to steady him.

“You expect me to walk like this?” Daniel asked wryly.

“I’m sure we can figure it out,” Jack said, grinding his erection against Daniel’s. Daniel groaned.

“Boys, I’m waiting.”

Jack cast a glance back into the bedroom. Peggy had laid herself out on the bed and was toying with the top edge of her mostly sheer underwear. Where the hell had she even found such a get up? Wherever it was, Jack was grateful for it. No wonder Daniel’s eyes had glazed over just thinking about it.

Daniel was pushing Jack backwards with gentle nudges to his hips and sucking kisses against his jaw, making Jack’s own eyes glaze over even as he forced himself to remain steady enough that Daniel could use him for balance as they made their way into the bedroom. Jack’s suit jacket and Daniel’s shirt got lost somewhere along the way, and Jack couldn’t have cared less. He had Daniel in his arms and Peggy waiting for him on the bed.

When they finally got there, Daniel slid Jack’s suspenders off his shoulders, then pushed him backwards onto the bed. His back almost instantly bumped into Peggy’s chest, and before he knew it, she twined her arms around him to rip off his tie and attack the buttons on his shirt. Daniel resumed his earlier assault on the fly of Jack’s trousers, pulling them and Jack's underwear off in a sharp tug that nearly sent him sprawling backward without his crutch to help balance him.

Jack felt obscene exposed like this. His dress shirt was splayed open, and his undershirt was rucked up above his hips, leaving his erect cock on display like some sort of carnal tribute. He wondered if it’d be asking too much for Daniel to suck him off while Jack pleasured Peggy with his fingers. Or maybe she’d sit on his face. It’d have the downside of blocking his view of Daniel, but he loved the way he could make her twitch above him when he used his mouth.

“You’re thinking too much,” Peggy murmured in his ear.

“Can’t decide which way I want you,” he said, turning to capture her full lips in another kiss.

Her tongue in his mouth was wicked and demanding. It made him want to laugh thinking he’d ever called her a Girl Scout.

“How about you fuck me while Daniel fucks you?” she said when they parted some time later.

Jack’s breath punched out of him at the image that presented.

“Fuck yes,” he managed. He looked over to Daniel, who was now propped up against the headboard, completely naked and stroking himself as he watched them with heavy-lidded eyes. His waist and stump still bore the imprints of the belts and stump sock he needed for his false leg. Jack felt honored to get to see it, unhidden and unashamed.

Jack rid himself of the rest of his clothes and crawled over to him. He knocked Daniel’s hand away to stroke his cock himself, slow, even tugs with a twist at the end that made Daniel’s entire body shudder. Daniel pulled Jack into a filthy kiss, all tongue and teeth and wandering hands. He groped at Jack’s ass, his fingers teasing at his entrance. Daniel gasped and broke the kiss.

Jack grinned, breathless. “You really think I’d come here unprepared?”

It had been awkward fingering himself in a public bathroom before driving to the hotel, trying to make sure his muscles were sufficiently stretched and his hole sufficiently lubed so Daniel could plunge right in if he wanted.

The look on Daniel’s face made it worth it.

“Such a boy scout,” Peggy teased. She reached around him and rolled a sheath onto Jack’s dick. He shuddered at the sensation. He turned to pull her into him, then licked his way into her mouth. She mewled as he kissed her, turning her own tricks back on her.

Jack plunged his hands under her nightgown thing, grasping at her hips and ass to pull her flush against him, to run his hands up the smooth skin of her back. She undulated against him, tugging at his hair and teasing him with the way she’d move once he was inside her. He gasped into her mouth as Daniel took advantage of his distraction to play with his ass.

Peggy lost her underwear in short order, and the nightgown thing moments after that. Then Daniel’s fingers crooked into Jack’s ass in just the right way and Jack lost all ability to keep track of what was happening for a moment.

When he came back to himself, Peggy was scraping her teeth over the tattoo of the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor on Jack’s ribs. She and Daniel both had a strange fascination with it. He’d gotten it right after boot camp; he and three other Marines were drunk on leave and thought getting tattoos would be a great way to commemorate the moment. Jack was the only one of them left alive.

He distracted himself from the melancholy thought by cupping Peggy’s breasts in his hands. Or trying to. Her breasts were so big, he couldn’t fit his hands entirely around them, but the full curve of them was erotic enough to make up for it. Jack loved it when she let them hang loose like this, loved watching the movement of them when when her breath hitched as he pinched a pink nipple between his fingers and rolled it.

They were kissing again, sloppier this time, and Daniel was mouthing across Jack’s shoulder blades, encouraging Jack to straddle his hips backward, encouraging Peggy to crawl on top of them both until finally, finally, Jack was fully seated on Daniel’s cock, and Peggy slowly lowered herself onto Jack’s.

Jack felt he might explode from the sensation. It was too much, too good for someone like him. This must be what heaven felt like, he mused, relishing the moment. Peggy hot and wet above him, Daniel filling him up, firm and strong from below as Jack’s thighs burned from holding himself in place. It was everything he’d ever wanted.

He felt his lovers’ hands tangle together over his shoulders where Peggy was hanging on to him for balance, and knew if he could focus his eyes properly from their lustful glaze that Peggy and Daniel would be giving each other one of their speaking looks. It made something dark purr inside him.

Jack started to rock gently, fighting his urge to move forward and backward at once. He kept his rhythm slow, but as deep as he could manage, first grinding up into Peggy’s dripping cunt, then sliding down onto Daniel’s hard cock again and again. Peggy sighed, clawing her nails into his neck as they moved together. Daniel stifled a moan into his shoulder, grasping his hips hard enough to bruise.

They didn’t do this very often, all three of them at once. They usually took turns, making sure one of them got off, then another of them, then another. Frequently, it was two of them working to bring the third to utter, bone-melting distraction. Peggy often came multiple times, Jack and Daniel less often due to simple biological constraints. None of them minded.

Peggy was absolutely gorgeous when she came, all her fire and determination reaching a quiet, shuddering peak before fading to banked embers in her sated eyes, a goddess at rest for a few moments. Daniel, in contrast, could become wild: bucking, shouting, more vocal than either Peggy or Jack when given the right circumstances. Jack loved being the cause of both instances.

With all the stimulation, Jack wasn’t surprised when he was the first to come this time, hips stuttering, throat groaning, no matter how hard he tried to hold himself off from it. It was all too good, too much. He was pleased to feel Daniel come inside him only moments later, to hear his almost pained cry as his rhythm failed too.

It took them a minute to recover. They tumbled off of each other, Peggy and Jack collapsing on either side of Daniel. Or, at least, Jack collapsed. He was dimly aware that Peggy was still squirming with unfulfilled lust on the far side of the bed, but couldn’t get his body to respond to do anything about it. He felt like one electrified nerve, tingling and buzzing from the strength of his orgasm. Seeing stars might have been less intense.

Daniel rolled over to kiss Peggy, the wet sounds of their lips sliding together making Jack’s fingers twitch with the urge to join them. Eventually, he gained enough mastery of himself to dispose of the condom and do just that.

Peggy was sighing in ecstasy as Daniel nipped along the soft column of her throat, one hand massaging a breast. Jack crawled over and situated himself between her legs, spreading them with gentle nudges to her knees. She gasped as her eyes flew open to look at him. He gave her a smirk, then bent down to nuzzle at her damp curls.

She’d punch him if he ever admitted it out loud, but Jack thought his favorite version of Peggy was flat on her back with him between her thighs. The musky smell of her was intoxicating. The noises she made as he licked between her lower lips was electrifying. The way he could make her writhe when his tongue played with her nub was a bigger ego boost than all the promotions he’d ever received.

Peggy rarely let her guard down, but when she did, it was the best thing in the world. Jack was going to treasure it until she told him to stop.

Jack and Daniel worked her over until she was gasping for breath. Daniel could be an absolutely filthy kisser when he set his mind to it, so Jack did everything he could to match him from his place between Peggy's legs. He sucked at her nub, flicked his tongue over it again and again, then twisted his fingers up and into her at the same time Daniel gave her nipples a wicked twist.

She came with a rare, high-pitched gasp Jack hoped he’d never forget.

After, as she lay there in a contented puddle, Jack licked his lips and smiled at Daniel. He was pulled into a hard, claiming kiss as Daniel chased Peggy’s taste from his mouth. They parted with matching, exhausted grins, flopping back down onto the bed next to Peggy, who already seemed half asleep.

And to think Jack had been nervous to come here. This wasn’t such a bad honeymoon at all.

 

***

 

The thing was, Jack knew his time with Peggy and Daniel as the third wheel in their relationship was finite the first time they all fell into bed together. There were some couples you looked at and just knew they’d be together forever, and Peggy and Daniel were one of them.

Didn’t stop him from taking what he could get while it was still on offer, though.

Between Peggy’s luscious curves and Daniel’s sharp jaw, Jack was getting everything he’d ever wanted in his choice of bed partners. Neither one of them was embarrassed by him or afraid to take him down a peg or two when necessary, whether his trousers were on or off. Peggy in command was awe-inspiring and yet somehow also the safest place to be, even when she was beating his ass with a paddle. And when Daniel was in charge … well, it was safe to say Jack never came so hard in his life.

And when he wasn’t capable of being around them, when his skin itched at thought of being touched, when the war was just a little too close, Jack didn’t need to feel guilty for stepping away for a night or a week because they had each other.

It was really the perfect arrangement.

Except, Jack never got used to seeing their wedding rings on their fingers.

Every time, it was like a blow to the gut. In the office, in the street, in the bedroom, he’d catch a glimpse of gold on Daniel’s hand, or the flash of a diamond on Peggy’s and feel that … feeling.

Jealousy wasn’t the right word for it, it wasn’t that. He wanted them to be together, liked the stability the two of them being together provided. The feeling was more of a longing, a yearning that felt close to loneliness, but didn’t fit there either. And it didn’t go away. The feeling was there when they all came back from the honeymoon, it was there when Peggy and Daniel finally convinced him to move in with them, it was there when the three of them lay tangled in bed together at night.

After months of thinking about it, Jack couldn’t put a finger on what it was he felt around his lovers, and that just left him feeling like even more of an unnecessary addition to this relationship than he already did.

Things came to a head when Peggy found out she was pregnant.

She and Daniel were all tremulous smiles and excited plans. Jack was numb. He’d been wrong before, about their wedding being the beginning of the end between the three of them. It hurt to see them paired off permanently, but he could be the third wheel, pretend nothing had really changed. A kid though, this would change everything.

Jack gave himself until the end of the week to pack his things and move out.

He had surprisingly little to his name. A handful of suits, some shirts and ties and a shelf of books he never got around to reading. He was nearly done packing when Peggy caught him snapping his suitcase shut.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

Jack spun around guiltily. She had one hand resting on the flat curve of her stomach the way she’d been doing since she told him and Daniel about the baby. Jack wasn’t sure if it was unconscious or not.

He threw her a smirk. “Come on, Marge, you don’t really think I’d stick around now that you and Sousa are planning for Sousa Jr., did you?”

“And what if it’s a Jack Jr.?” Peggy said, the tilt of her chin defiant. “You’d abandon your child, just like that?”

Jack swallowed, his gut a roiling mess of emotion. “It’ll be a Sousa no matter which of us knocked you up.”

“Jack.”

“You and Daniel are married, Peggy. You don’t need me around mucking up the works of your perfect family.”

Peggy seemed to shrink where she stood. “Is that what you think? You think you don’t belong to us just as much as we belong to each other?”

“Oh come on, Marge. We all knew this was ending the second it started. You two are perfect for each other. Anyone with half a brain could see it years ago. I’m just your bit of fun on the side.”

“Jack.”

“And it’s been fun,” Jack plowed on, ignoring the tears in her eyes, ignoring the tears that wanted to well up in his own eyes, “but this day’s been coming for a long time. You know it, I know it, Daniel knows it. It’s past time I should leave you two alone to your happily ever after.”

Peggy’s chin was actually wobbling as she stood there, anger flashing in her eyes. Jack hated himself for making her look like that, hated that he was burning this bridge. But it had to be done.

“You’re a real asshole, Jack,” Daniel said from the doorway.

Jack’s heart clenched. “Yeah, well, you knew that before you ever slept with me.”

Daniel crutched forward as fast as his leg would let him. “You think that’s all this ever was? A roll in the sheets?”

“Who am I to judge the moral failings of others?” Jack asked, spreading his arms wide and putting the cockiest, most obnoxious smirk on his face that he could manage.

“It had nothing to do with morality, you idiot; we both realized we loved you and took a chance on your stubborn ass,” Daniel snapped.

Jack recoiled like he’d been hit. Of all the ways he used to imagine someone telling him they loved him, of Daniel telling him he loved him, having it be thrown out in an argument was never one of them. Maybe it should have been.

“Jack, we want you in our lives,” Peggy said, stepping further into the room. “We keep trying to invite you in, but you keep running away.”

“But you’re married,” Jack said, his voice small.

“What the hell does that have to do with anything?” Daniel asked. “I asked you how you felt about it before I proposed to Peggy, and you said I should go for it, you were happy for me. What, were you lying?”

“No!”

“Then where the hell is this coming from?”

“You two should be together. You’re perfect for each other.” Jack didn’t know much about a lot of things, but he did know that.

“But you don’t think you belong with us as a part of that,” Peggy said quietly.

Jack opened his mouth, but nothing came out, so he shrugged helplessly.

Daniel stared at him, face pale. “You bought me a drink and told me it was past time I asked her.”

“Because it was,” Jack said. “Everything I said about you two at the wedding was the truth. I knew you were made for each other from that first month we were all in the office together. But I’m also a selfish bastard, so when we started all this,” he said waving his hand vaguely around the room and avoiding their eyes, “I didn’t say no. I should’ve, but I didn’t. It’s damn lucky I didn’t tear you two apart in the process. You two should have those rings on your fingers. It’s only right.”

Daniel closed his eyes and clenched his jaw, obviously trying to stop himself from saying something that might make things worse. Jack wished he’d be a pal and lay into him the way he deserved. It might end this faster.

Peggy, ever the bulldog when she wanted something, didn’t bother holding her tongue. “Jack, Daniel and I being married to one another doesn’t make our feelings for you mean any less.”

“Doesn’t mean anything between either of you and me could ever be official. Especially not with a baby on the way.”

“Is that what’s bothering you?” Peggy asked, voice soft but her gaze sharp and penetrating. “That our relationship with you isn’t official?”

Jack sighed. “It’s not like it can be, can it? A lotta things have changed the past few years, but bigamy is still illegal in this country.”

“And you couldn’t marry Daniel anyway.”

“Peggy,” Daniel said, looking as pained at the statement as Jack felt.

Her eyes went calculating and distant as she ignored both of them, hands on her hips in that headstrong way she had. “It wouldn’t be official in any legal way,” she said, her attention snapping back to them, “but what if we had our own ceremony? Just between the three of us? An exchange of tokens of some sort?”

The room was silent as Jack and Daniel stared at her. Jack’s heart began thudding in his chest in a way that had nothing to do with anxiety over the fight. His lungs fully filled for the first time in he couldn’t even think how long, while his stomach twisted in hopeful anticipation. They could exchange tokens of affection like in some medieval knight’s tale. He could get them both something they could wear, that he could see on them even when they were outside of the house. Visible proof of what they meant to each other.

For the first time since Daniel asked for his blessing to propose, Jack felt a certain lightness come back to his heart.

“Why didn’t we think to do that before?” Daniel asked, his voice full of wonder and his eyes full of love as he looked at Peggy, radiant in the late afternoon sunlight filtering through the bedroom window.

“Too busy shagging, I expect,” Peggy said.

They all cracked up at that. Jack laughed so hard he needed to sit down, adrenaline from the argument and relief at not having to leave, at Peggy saving his ass once again, mixing up inside him and making his knees weak.

Fuck, he adored that woman.

When they all calmed down to just the occasional giggle, Daniel made his way over to where Jack was sitting on the bed wiping tears from his eyes. He nodded his chin toward Jack’s suitcase, still packed and judgemental too near to where Jack was sitting.

“You gonna unpack that?” he asked.

Jack looked at it, took a breath still shaky with emotion, then looked back up at Daniel and nodded.

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I guess I’m staying. For as long as you’ll have me.”

 

***

 

Jack entered the living room with two carefully wrapped boxes in his hands. Daniel and Peggy were already sitting beside each other on the couch, each with a small box of their own in their laps. He was relieved to see they’d both dressed up slightly for the occasion too, Peggy in one of Jack’s favorite of her night out dresses, Daniel actually wearing a tie.

Jack took a seat on one of the armchairs closest to them. He shifted uncomfortably for a moment, awkward in the silence as they all stared at each other, trying to figure out how to start. Finally, Jack picked up the box meant for Peggy and thrust it at her.

“Ladies first,” he said. She raised an eyebrow, one corner of her mouth lifting in amusement. Jack shrugged. “Well, we’ve gotta start somewhere, and this was your idea.”

Peggy took the box from him, handing him the one in her lap in exchange. “I suppose we do,” she said.

Jack fiddled with his present. He ran his thumb down one corner where the paper bulged out from the box a little. He found himself oddly scared to open it, unsure what would be inside. He never particularly liked surprises, though he did like mysteries. If he was smart, he’d reframe what was inside it as a mystery, but he was too nervous to be smart just then. He watched Peggy tear into hers instead.

It was bigger than a ring box; he wouldn’t step on Daniel’s toes there, even if he did maybe spend at least as much as Daniel spent on Peggy’s engagement ring. It was only right, considering it was meant to be a similar piece of jewelry.

Peggy removed the lid and tipped the crimson, velvet-covered jewelry box out. The lid from that one creaked quietly as she opened it. Inside, a necklace with a large single pearl surrounded by a circle of diamond cut gold sat glittering in the light.

Both Peggy and Daniel gasped at the sight of it.

“That’s what Margaret means, right?” Jack said. “Pearl. Otherwise known as turning grit into something beautiful.”

Peggy stared at him for a moment, her eyes glowing with something he couldn’t quite name. She leaned over and kissed him breathless. He kissed her back, trying to put all the things he could never put into words into the kiss. She seemed to be doing the same.

When she pulled away, Jack’s heart was thundering in his chest and his eyes had trouble blinking back open.

“Put it on me?” she asked.

Jack took the jewelry box back and removed the necklace. It had a slightly thicker chain than normal—diamond cut to match the pendant—purposely designed both to support the weight of the pearl and to stand up to whatever abuse Peggy put it through on the job.

Peggy held up her hair and turned her back to him, just as she had so many times getting ready to leave the house. Jack secured the necklace around her throat with a kiss to the nape of her neck. She shivered as she turned back to face him again.

“Do yours then,” Peggy said, her voice a little breathier than normal.

Jack swallowed. His fingers shook as he ripped the wrapping paper off, but Peggy always gave him the courage to go on, to do better. There wouldn’t be some horrible surprise in there; that wasn’t Peggy. Once the paper was off, Jack tossed it aside and opened the small box to pull out a gold tie pin with some sort of five petaled flower on it.

“It’s a tracking device,” Peggy said, taking it from him to demonstrate. “Not always, but if you ever find yourself in any kind of trouble, turn the rose so the fifth petal is pointing down instead of up and it will send a signal to lead us to you. Because we’ll always come for you as long as you ask us to.”

Her smile wavered a little as he sat there staring at her like a dope. If he’d had something like this back in LA …. He took it back from her with gentle fingers. No one had cared about keeping him safe since he was a kid. Sure, his Marine buddies had his back during the war, and his agents would do what they could to keep him alive on a case, but no one had gone out of their way like this to make sure he knew they’d be there for him since his Gam Gam had her stroke.

And Peggy had given him a rose. She’d given him an English rose, he recognized now, a piece of her, in a way, that he could wear whenever he left the house.

“Guess it’s a good thing I nearly always wear ties, then,” he joked past the lump of emotion in his throat.

“Well, it’s not exactly easy to find jewelry for men in our profession that won’t arouse undue suspicion,” Peggy said, her lips quirked in that obnoxious, kissable way that used to drive him to distraction in the days when he never thought he’d get to kiss her at all.

“No, I guess not,” he said, fiddling with the tie pin. Peggy took it from him again and slid it into place between the third and fourth buttons of his shirt, then tugged at the top of his tie to give it a little slack. He felt its light weight as a tangible thing above his heart, proof that someone as amazing as Peggy cared about him and wanted to help keep him safe.

He blinked quickly a few times, then looked over to Daniel, who had a familiar, fond expression on his face as he watched them together.

“Mine is just a watch,” Daniel said, looking a little sheepish as he handed over a square box.

Jack grinned at him. “That’s funny, cause so’s mine for you.”

He’d gotten Daniel a watch with a round face and a matching metal band—inconspicuous, but well-made and intended to go with anything in the horror show he called a closet. It was fancier than anything Daniel would buy for himself, with a moonphase window that had reminded Jack of sitting curled up under the stars on the hotel balcony together while Peggy had a bath during the honeymoon. From the quirk of his lips, Daniel must remember that night too.

Peggy cleared her throat and nodded down at the box in Jack’s hands. He took the hint and opened it, hands steadier than they were before.

The watch Daniel got for him had a slim, rectangular face with raised gold markers and a light brown leather strap. It too was well-made, but inconspicuous—nothing that would draw undue attention in their line of work. The stainless steel back was engraved with the words, “I trust you with my heart.”

“Dammit, Daniel,” Jack managed to choke out.

They both took off the watches they were already wearing and set them aside. Daniel took the watch he’d given Jack and placed it around Jack’s wrist, pushing the tang through the hole to secure it in place with more care than anyone probably ever had with any watch in existence. Jack took Daniel’s watch with shaking hands and slid it over his wrist in turn, flipping the metal clasp closed with a click that sounded louder and more final than it usually would. It looked right paired with the wedding ring on his finger.

Daniel cupped Jack’s face with his other hand, tilting his head up into a gentle kiss that brought butterflies to Jack’s stomach. When he pulled away, they were both smiling.

“There,” Peggy said. “We belong to each other now. We’re family. No running away again.”

Jack looked at her, and he looked at Daniel. His heart had never felt so full.

“Yes, Ma’am,” he said.

It would be an awkward order to follow, the outside world being what it was, but now, somehow, it would also be one of the easiest things he’d ever do.


End file.
